Building a Nuclear Weapons Free World

An evening celebrating the memory of Dr Martin Hartog 

Join Medact at St. Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace for an evening lecture from IPPNW co-president, Dr Carlos Umaña. We welcome Medact members, health workers, students and particularly young campaigners as we reflect on the fight for a nuclear weapons free world.

There is an increasing urgency to strengthen our campaigning movement, and build closer connections and coalition with movements dedicated to climate justice, anti-militarism and anti-imperialism.

Following the lecture, we’ll hear a discussion between Carlos and UK-based campaigners for disarmament on the challenges and opportunities for growing the movement for nuclear disarmament in our current political context. The evening will close with a drinks reception for attendees. 

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Dr. Carlos Umaña is a general practitioner, former local health director, and epidemiological surveillance officer with the Costa Rican Ministry of Health. Serving as IPPNW Co-President, he is also on the ICAN International Steering Group. He is the current president of IPPNW Costa Rica, founder of Artists for Peace (2014) in Costa Rica, and president of the activist group “Peace and Diversity”. He is also the recipient of the 2018 “Alan Turing LGBTIQ Visibility Award” for Social Organization.

Since 2013, he has worked by campaigning and lobbying for awareness on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons (HINW) and support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). He has worked closely with governments as part of the Costa Rican delegation in the 2014 NPT PrepCom and the 2015 NPT Review Conference, and has worked with the network of regional peace organisations to organise conferences and roundtables on the HINW and the TPNW.

Marion Birch has worked on public health and healthcare programmes in countries affected by armed conflict and disasters for 20 years, principally in Sudan, Mozambique, Angola and Sri Lanka. In the UK she has worked as a training manager, health advisor and consultant, and for eight years was director of the global health charity Medact. Presently Marion teaches and examines part time at University College London (Institute for Global Health and the Global Business School for Health), at City St George’s (University of London), and at the Society of Apothecaries. She is editor of the Routledge / Taylor & Francis journal Medicine, Conflict and Survival which is affiliated with IPPNW and their UK affiliate Medact.

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In memory of Martin Hartog (1931-2023)

This event is made possible thanks to the generous donation of a founding member of Medact, the late Dr Martin Hartog (1931–2023). Martin was the first chair of Medact and an active member of the Nuclear Weapons Group until his death in July 2023.

The horror of any use of nuclear weapons was close to Martin’s heart for many years. He was deeply involved with the Medical Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (MCANW) until it merged with the Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW) to form Medact in 1992. Martin served as the Chair of Medact in those early years, and was an active member particularly with our Nuclear Weapons Group for the rest of his life.

Martin felt passionately about the need to introduce and involve younger generations of campaigners in the movement for nuclear disarmament. His legacy donation to the group contributed to enabling recruitment of a project coordinator for the Don’t Bank on the Bomb! UK campaign, and additionally supporting this public lecture.